More midsize cars than premium models in Germany feature parking assistants as standard

Stuttgart, Germany – Remote parking, automatic lane-keeping support, drowsiness detection: these are just some of the many features that buyers of new cars no longer want to do without. Installation rates of driver assistance systems are rising steadily. “More and more car buyers want a vehicle that anticipates and even intervenes in driving maneuvers,” says Dr. Dirk Hoheisel, member of the Bosch board of management. Surprisingly, it’s not premium vehicles that most frequently feature smart parking as standard equipment. Far from it: when it comes to such systems, compact and midsize cars are better equipped. These are the findings from a Bosch evaluation of the 2017 statistics on newly registered cars. Whether proximity alarms, parking assists, or reversing cameras, 55 percent of newly registered compact and midsize cars in Germany come equipped with at least one parking assistance system as standard. In contrast, this figure is only about 25 percent for premium vehicles. Overall, 45 percent of newly registered cars across all vehicle classes have at least one parking assistance system fitted as standard.

More and more car buyers want a vehicle that anticipates and even intervenes in driving maneuvers.

Dr. Dirk Hoheisel, member of the Bosch board of management

EU plans to mandate emergency braking assistants

The analysis shows that parking assistance systems top the list of desired features in Germany, followed by automatic emergency braking systems. When a rear-end collision is imminent, these systems help either avoid it or mitigate its consequences. “Driver assistance systems aren’t just cool gadgets that make driving more convenient – they can save lives,” Hoheisel says. For that reason, the European Union is currently preparing legislation to mandate the installation of emergency braking systems. This is expected to mean that all new vehicle models will have to have such a system on board starting in 2022. The World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, which is part of the UNECE, has drawn up a regulation that creates the conditions for this. The forum recommends that only passenger cars featuring an emergency braking system should be marketed in the EU and other countries in the future. The UN Economic Commission for Europe estimates that emergency braking assistants could save 1,000 lives a year in the EU. Of all the new cars registered in Germany in 2017, 54 percent were fitted with such an emergency braking system, up from just 38 percent in 2016. The evaluation of statistics on newly registered cars from 2017 also revealed that, in addition to parking and braking assistance systems, two others are increasingly finding acceptance: drowsiness detection and lane-keeping functions. Nearly half of all new cars can detect when the driver is drowsy, and more than one in three cars comes equipped with at least one lane-keeping system. Furthermore, just under one-fourth of cars feature adaptive cruise control (ACC), and 9 percent of newly registered cars in Germany already have a partly automated traffic jam assist system. This helps drivers relax in congested traffic by instructing the car to automatically follow the vehicle in front. It also takes control of starting and accelerating, and brakes and steers within its lane.

Driver assistance systems aren’t just cool gadgets that make driving more convenient – they can save lives.

Dr. Dirk Hoheisel, member of the Bosch board of management

Driver assistance systems becoming ever more popular in Europe

However, it is not only German car buyers who are increasingly relying on electronic assistants that make driving safer and more convenient; parking assistants and automatic emergency braking systems are increasingly making inroads in other European countries as well. For example, parking assistants are particularly popular in France: they feature in 85 percent of cars there, the highest share of such systems. Bottom of the list is Italy, with 44 percent. With regard to automatic emergency braking systems, Belgium and Germany are tied at 54 percent, while 45 percent of new cars in the Netherlands are fitted with such a system. By contrast, the share in Italy is 30 percent, and in Russia just 6 percent to date.

Driver assistance systems keep an eye on complex situations and help avoid accidents or even save lives. This is why Bosch is continuing to develop an ever expanding range of driver assistance systems that protect road users and make life easier for drivers. And by systematically refining driver assistance systems, Bosch is also creating the technical basis for the automated driving of the future. With this expertise, the company is already one of today’s innovation leaders in many areas that are essential for automated driving: surround sensors, artificial intelligence, and the electronic control of brakes, powertrain, and steering.

Bosch evaluation based on vehicle registration statistics for 2017

Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) reported that the country registered 3.44 million new cars in 2017. Working with data from the market analyst JATO Dynamics, Bosch looked to see which driver assistance systems featured in new cars in Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Russia. Bosch has been analyzing the acceptance of driver assistance systems since 2013.